Monthly Archives: December 2011

COMMERCE CITY, Colo. — After initially telling customers it might refund their money, UPS said Tuesday there would be no refunds for those who purchased “guaranteed delivery” by Christmas.

UPS said there will be no refunds because the delays were caused by last week’s snow storm.

“We cannot control the weather,” said UPS spokeswoman Natalie Godwin.

As 7NEWS first told you last week, nearly 50,000 packages were not delivered by Christmas because UPS trucks were halted during last week’s snow storm that dropped a foot of snow in some areas of metro Denver.

The debacle resulted in hundreds of people lining up outside the Commerce City UPS Customer Center on Christmas Eve. Most who showed up at the customer center were turned away without their packages.

UPS said all the packages that weren’t delivered on-time would be delivered by Tuesday or Wednesday of this week.

Frustrated customers vowed to get their money back, saying UPS had no excuse for the massive delays. UPS’s main competitors, FedEx and the U.S. Postal Service, did not experience the same delays and reported few problems with delivering packages during the storm.

LONDON—Rupert Murdoch’s News International has paid out settlements to seven more prominent figures in the wake of the phone hacking scandal at its now-shuttered News of the World​ tabloid. The company said in a statement Tuesday it had settled claims brought by Princess Diana’s former lover James Hewitt, ex-Liberal Democrat lawmaker Mark Oaten, TV presenter Ukrika Jonsson, model Abi Titmuss, and Paul Dadge, who helped rescue victims of the 2005 London transit bombings. Theatrical agent Michelle Milburn and Calum Best, the son of soccer legend George Best, rounded out the settlement list. The scandal over phone hacking at the News of the World tabloid boiled over after it emerged that journalists at the paper had routinely hacked into the phones of celebrities, politicians, sports figures and even crime victims. The now-defunct tabloid has already settled with several prominent figures, including actress Sienna Miller​ and the family of murdered British schoolgirl Milly Dowler​, whose phone was broken into by the paper soon after her disappearance in 2002. The Dowler case in particular revolted Britons and was instrumental in pushing Prime Minister David Cameron to set up an inquiry into U.K. media ethics, which is still hearing from witnesses. The terms of the new payments announced Tuesday were not disclosed but they are likely to be substantial. Miller received 100,000 pounds (nearly $157,000) in damages; the Dowlers were awarded 2 million pounds ($3.1 million) plus 1 million pounds ($1.6 million) from Murdoch himself, which was earmarked for charity. The scandal has hit News International parent company News Corp​. hard, most notably by scrapping the company’s multibillion-pound bid for full control of satellite broadcaster BSkyB.

The list: 1. “We are the 99 percent.” — slogan of Occupy movement. 2. “There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. Nobody. You built a factory out there — good for you! But I want to be clear. You moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for. You hired workers the rest of us paid to educate. You were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for.” — U.S. Sen. candidate Elizabeth Warren, speaking in Andover, Mass., in August. 3. “My friends and I have been coddled long enough by a billionaire-friendly Congress.” — Billionaire Warren Buffett, in a New York Times op-ed on Aug. 15. 4. “I believe in evolution and trust scientists on global warming. Call me crazy.” — Presidential candidate Jon Huntsman in an Aug. 18 tweet. 5. “Oops.” — Presidential candidate Rick Perry after unsuccessfully attempting to remember the third federal agency he would eliminate during a Nov. 9 debate. 6. “When they ask me, ‘Who is the president of Ubeki-beki-beki-beki-stan-stan?’ I’m going to say, ‘You know, I don’t know. Do you know?'” — Then-presidential candidate Herman Cain in an interview by Christian Broadcasting Network on Oct. 7. 7. “I am on a drug. It’s called ‘Charlie Sheen.’ It’s not available because if you try it once, you will die. Your face will melt off and your children will weep over your exploded body.” — Actor Charlie Sheen in a February interview with ABC News. 8. “Oh wow. Oh wow. Oh wow.” — Apple co-founder Steve Jobs’ last words on Oct. 5, as reported by his sister Mona Simpson in her eulogy. 9. “I can’t say with certitude.” — Then-U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner on June 1 when he was asked whether a lewd photograph was in fact him. 10. “Instead of receiving the help that she had hoped for, Mr. Cain instead decided to provide her with his idea of a stimulus package.” — Lawyer Gloria Allred on Nov. 7 discussing Herman Cain’s alleged sexual harassment of her client.